The invention relates to a method for filling of a mold and a casting system, whereby in particular a sand mold having a casting box with an upper and a lower mold half is used, and the mold has an intake channel connected in the dividing plane of both mold halves to the mold cavity. The method can be utilized for the filling of both a mold without a box and also a mold provided with a casting box, which can be chemically bound and also clay-bound.
Clay-bound sand molds are considerable less expensive than chemically bound molds so that preferably clay-bound sand molds are used in foundries. These clay-bound sand molds are as a rule manufactured in a casting box, which receives each a mold half. It is here known to construct the intake channel in the upper mold half, whereby the casting of the sand mold is particularly simple in constructional respects since the liquidy metal must merely be poured from an open casting pan into the mold. The intake channel extends hereby advantageously over the height of the mold so that the mold cavity is filled in a rising casting. Such a casting of the mold, however, has the significant disadvantage that the metal is poured into the mold from a certain height causing on the one hand a bothersome splattered iron leading to considerable breakdowns in automatically operating mold and casting systems. On the other hand, the unavoidably great casting height causes in these cases high ferro-static pressures in the sand molds, which can deform the sand molds and can also damage them due to turbulences created during the casting. These disadvantages occur also in upright positioned molds, in which the intake channel is either arranged in the mold-dividing plane of both molds or, however, on the upper side of the upper mold half.
For this reason it is already known to fill the molds from the underside, for example, by means of a low-pressure furnace, which has an uptake connected to the port of the intake channel. By increasing the pressure in the gas chamber of the low pressure furnace, the liquidy material is pressed through the uptake upwardly into the mold. The pressure must be maintained until the liquidy or molten material in the intake channel of the mold has solidified. The pressure in the low-pressure furnace is subsequently lowered and the still liquidy excessive material flows back into the low-pressure furnace. The mold can then be lifted off and moved on. Such a method has proven to be successful, however, it requires an expensive apparatus, especially since the positioning of the mold above the uptake and the recharging of the low-pressure furnaces demand a high degree of technology. These devices are also technically complicated since the mechanical parts lying below the plane of the mold are difficult to access and are thus difficult to service.
The basic purpose of the invention is to provide a method and an apparatus to carry out the method and a suitable mold, which make it possible to keep down the level of technology and thus the investment expenses accordingly, which demand little service while at the same time providing high process safety and a precise repetitive exactness and significantly reduce the amount of the cycle material, save energy, avoid smoke development, eliminate a penetration formation caused by the height of casting, and moreover guarantee a calm, turbulence-free mold filling. A further purpose of the invention is to provide the casting system in such a manner that also existing casting systems can be retrofitted in a simple and inexpensive manner so that the method of the invention can be carried out with these casting systems.
This purpose is attained according to the invention for the method in such a manner that the intake channel is arranged extending in a plane lying essentially horizontally during casting, and has a bearing surface defining its port, onto which bearing surface can be sealingly placed a fill pipeline, through which the mold can be filled with liquidy metal under low pressure.
Thus a mold is used for the method of the invention which is divided in two, whereby the intake channel extends essentially in the dividing plane, whereby the mold is arranged in such a manner during casting that the dividing plane lies essentially horizontally. It may be advantageous for certain mold cavity designs to slightly incline the mold with respect to the horizontal in order to achieve a calm and even filling of the entire mold cavity. The intake channel of the mold is designed in such a manner that a bearing surface for a fill pipe is constructed around its port, which fill pipe can be sealingly fitted to this bearing surface. It has hereby been determined that also in the case of clay-bound sand molds a flat bearing surface is already sufficient when same rests under a certain pressure on the port of the fill pipe in order to guarantee a metal-tight seal. The mold cavity can then be filled with a relatively small overpressure through the fill pipeline through the horizontally lying intake channel, whereby it has here been found to be advantageous when the fill pipeline is connected to a casting machine and terminates in the lower part of a pressure chamber. A fill chute can also terminate in this lower part of the chamber, the fill funnel of which fill chute must not be closed off when same lies above the maximum fill level of the pressure kettle. Such a casting machine makes it possible, corresponding with the respective requirements, to successively increase the fill pressure in the pressure kettle by increasing the pressure so that the mold cavity can be filled without any danger of penetration and free of turbulence. Two or more fill pipelines can be connected to a casting machine so that several molds can be filled simultaneously.
It has proven to be advantageous when the mold is moved toward the opening of the fill pipeline, whereby here a specified bearing pressure is adjusted, for example, by means of a moving cylinder. The casting boxes are supplied on a conventional floor-mounted conveyer with the mold-dividing plane lying horizontally, on which floor-mounted conveyer the casting boxes are cyclically moved. A moving device is integrated into this floor-mounted conveyer, whereby one or more casting boxes are arranged simultaneously laterally movably so that they can be moved toward the mouthpiece of the casting machine in order to fill the mold. After the mold has been filed, the casting boxes are moved back to the floor-mounted conveyor by the moving device and are moved on cyclically. The force with which the moving device is moved toward the casting machine is adjustable so that the bearing pressure of the bearing surface of the mold at the port of the fill pipeline can be adapted to the respective requirements.
Immediately after the mold has been filled, the intake channel is closed off by means of moving sand or core, whereby this sand or rather core movement is caused by a ram which presses sand into the cross section of the intake channel or, however, moves a core into said channel. Thus one must not wait here until the metal solidifies in the intake channel but the separation of the mold from the fill pipeline can occur directly after the intake channel has been closed off. This results in a significant decrease in the cycle time.
A filter is installed, according to a further suggestion of the invention, into the intake channel of the mold, namely in flow direction in front of the point at which the intake channel is closed off by sand or core movement, which filter prevents sand parts, which could come loose during closing, from reaching into the fill pipeline.
The casting system, to carry out the method of the invention, consists of a transport device for supplying and removing the casting boxes, a casting machine for filling the casting boxes, and a blocking device to block the intake channel of the mold following the casting, whereby the transport device houses a moving carriage, by means of which the casting box can be moved transversely with respect to the transport direction of the transport path toward the casting machine and back to the transport path, whereby through the movement of the casting box same can be moved closely toward an opening of a fill pipeline of the casting machine, and the metal can be pressed by means of the overpressure in the casting machine into the mold cavity of the mold.
The casting machine is advantageously one which has a pressure kettle, in the lower area of which terminate both the fill pipeline and also a fill chute, through which material follows into the casting machine. The pressure kettle is closed off and is connected to a pressure-gas system so that upon an increase of the pressure in the pressure kettle the material in the fill pipeline and also in the fill chute increases. Since the fill chute has a fill funnel, which lies above the maximum level of the fill level of the pressure kettle and also above the port of the fill pipeline, it is possible to recharge the casting machine at any time.
The intake channel lies in the mold in the mold-dividing plane of the upper and lower box, whereby here a recess exists in the casting box so that a bearing surface is here opened up directly in the mold. The recess is advantageously conical so that the guiding of the port of the head channel of the fill pipeline is made easier.
Because of the very sensitive dosable fill speed of the mold cavity, same can be designed without any kind of a vent bore so that the necessary finish work on the cast pieces and the cycle material are further reduced.
Based on the method of the invention a casting system is provided which requires only a low level of technology and thus also little investment expenses. Such a casting system demands less service also because expensive dosing mechanisms are not needed. This means that an improvement of the availability of the system exists. Since we are here dealing with a closed fill system, also the heat loss is very low, thus resulting in a significant energy savings and moreover also a smoke development is avoided so that all in all better environmental conditions at the work station exist. Moreover, because of the closed system splattered iron also does not accumulate. Since dosing based on the low need for pressure for filling of the mold can be reached very exactly and reproducibly by simple means, a high process safety and a precise repetitive exactness is obtained. Moreover, the system makes it possible to store data so that the fill curves for each mold filling can be documented. Moreover, the system of the invention reduces the required cycle material, and penetration formations in the mold do not exist since here an energy entry caused by the casting height is avoided. Moreover, a very calm and turbulence-free mold filling is obtained. It is also advantageous that existing casting systems can be retrofitted for the new method with relatively little expense.